MQL4 and MQL5 Programming Articles

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Study the MQL5 language for programming trading strategies in numerous published articles mostly written by you - the community members. The articles are grouped into categories to help you quicker find answers to any questions related to programming: Integration, Tester, Trading Strategies, etc.

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Building a Candlestick Trend Constraint Model (Part 10): Strategic Golden and Death Cross (EA)

Building a Candlestick Trend Constraint Model (Part 10): Strategic Golden and Death Cross (EA)

Did you know that the Golden Cross and Death Cross strategies, based on moving average crossovers, are some of the most reliable indicators for identifying long-term market trends? A Golden Cross signals a bullish trend when a shorter moving average crosses above a longer one, while a Death Cross indicates a bearish trend when the shorter average moves below. Despite their simplicity and effectiveness, manually applying these strategies often leads to missed opportunities or delayed trades.
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Gain An Edge Over Any Market (Part II): Forecasting Technical Indicators

Gain An Edge Over Any Market (Part II): Forecasting Technical Indicators

Did you know that we can gain more accuracy forecasting certain technical indicators than predicting the underlying price of a traded symbol? Join us to explore how to leverage this insight for better trading strategies.
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Statistical Arbitrage Through Cointegrated Stocks (Part 1): Engle-Granger and Johansen Cointegration Tests

Statistical Arbitrage Through Cointegrated Stocks (Part 1): Engle-Granger and Johansen Cointegration Tests

This article aims to provide a trader-friendly, gentle introduction to the most common cointegration tests, along with a simple guide to understanding their results. The Engle-Granger and Johansen cointegration tests can reveal statistically significant pairs or groups of assets that share long-term dynamics. The Johansen test is especially useful for portfolios with three or more assets, as it calculates the strength of cointegrating vectors all at once.
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Estimate future performance with confidence intervals

Estimate future performance with confidence intervals

In this article we delve into the application of boostrapping techniques as a means to estimate the future performance of an automated strategy.
Filtering by History
Filtering by History

Filtering by History

The article describes the usage of virtual trading as an integral part of trade opening filter.
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Mastering Kagi Charts in MQL5 (Part I): Creating the Indicator

Mastering Kagi Charts in MQL5 (Part I): Creating the Indicator

Learn how to build a complete Kagi Chart engine in MQL5—constructing price reversals, generating dynamic line segments, and updating Kagi structures in real time. This first part teaches you how to render Kagi charts directly on MetaTrader 5, giving traders a clear view of trend shifts and market strength while preparing for automated Kagi-based trading logic in Part 2.
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Developing a multi-currency Expert Advisor (Part 14): Adaptive volume change in risk manager

Developing a multi-currency Expert Advisor (Part 14): Adaptive volume change in risk manager

The previously developed risk manager contained only basic functionality. Let's try to consider possible ways of its development, allowing us to improve trading results without interfering with the logic of trading strategies.
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Chaos theory in trading (Part 1): Introduction, application in financial markets and Lyapunov exponent

Chaos theory in trading (Part 1): Introduction, application in financial markets and Lyapunov exponent

Can chaos theory be applied to financial markets? In this article, we will consider how conventional Chaos theory and chaotic systems are different from the concept proposed by Bill Williams.
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Neural Networks Made Easy (Part 93): Adaptive Forecasting in Frequency and Time Domains (Final Part)

Neural Networks Made Easy (Part 93): Adaptive Forecasting in Frequency and Time Domains (Final Part)

In this article, we continue the implementation of the approaches of the ATFNet model, which adaptively combines the results of 2 blocks (frequency and time) within time series forecasting.
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Population optimization algorithms: Saplings Sowing and Growing up (SSG)

Population optimization algorithms: Saplings Sowing and Growing up (SSG)

Saplings Sowing and Growing up (SSG) algorithm is inspired by one of the most resilient organisms on the planet demonstrating outstanding capability for survival in a wide variety of conditions.
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News Trading Made Easy (Part 5): Performing Trades (II)

News Trading Made Easy (Part 5): Performing Trades (II)

This article will expand on the trade management class to include buy-stop and sell-stop orders to trade news events and implement an expiration constraint on these orders to prevent any overnight trading. A slippage function will be embedded into the expert to try and prevent or minimize possible slippage that may occur when using stop orders in trading, especially during news events.
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SQLite capabilities in MQL5: Example of a dashboard with trading statistics by symbols and magic numbers

SQLite capabilities in MQL5: Example of a dashboard with trading statistics by symbols and magic numbers

In this article, we will consider creating an indicator that displays trading statistics on a dashboard by account and by symbols and trading strategies. We will implement the code based on examples from the Documentation and the article on working with databases.
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Neural Networks in Trading: Transformer with Relative Encoding

Neural Networks in Trading: Transformer with Relative Encoding

Self-supervised learning can be an effective way to analyze large amounts of unlabeled data. The efficiency is provided by the adaptation of models to the specific features of financial markets, which helps improve the effectiveness of traditional methods. This article introduces an alternative attention mechanism that takes into account the relative dependencies and relationships between inputs.
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Pattern Recognition Using Dynamic Time Warping in MQL5

Pattern Recognition Using Dynamic Time Warping in MQL5

In this article, we discuss the concept of dynamic time warping as a means of identifying predictive patterns in financial time series. We will look into how it works as well as present its implementation in pure MQL5.
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Reimagining Classic Strategies (Part III): Forecasting Higher Highs And Lower Lows

Reimagining Classic Strategies (Part III): Forecasting Higher Highs And Lower Lows

In this series article, we will empirically analyze classic trading strategies to see if we can improve them using AI. In today's discussion, we tried to predict higher highs and lower lows using the Linear Discriminant Analysis model.
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DoEasy. Controls (Part 24): Hint auxiliary WinForms object

DoEasy. Controls (Part 24): Hint auxiliary WinForms object

In this article, I will revise the logic of specifying the base and main objects for all WinForms library objects, develop a new Hint base object and several of its derived classes to indicate the possible direction of moving the separator.
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Price Action Analysis Toolkit Development (Part 40): Market DNA Passport

Price Action Analysis Toolkit Development (Part 40): Market DNA Passport

This article explores the unique identity of each currency pair through the lens of its historical price action. Inspired by the concept of genetic DNA, which encodes the distinct blueprint of every living being, we apply a similar framework to the markets, treating price action as the “DNA” of each pair. By breaking down structural behaviors such as volatility, swings, retracements, spikes, and session characteristics, the tool reveals the underlying profile that distinguishes one pair from another. This approach provides more profound insight into market behavior and equips traders with a structured way to align strategies with the natural tendencies of each instrument.
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Developing an MQTT client for MetaTrader 5: a TDD approach — Part 3

Developing an MQTT client for MetaTrader 5: a TDD approach — Part 3

This article is the third part of a series describing our development steps of a native MQL5 client for the MQTT protocol. In this part, we describe in detail how we are using Test-Driven Development to implement the Operational Behavior part of the CONNECT/CONNACK packet exchange. At the end of this step, our client MUST be able to behave appropriately when dealing with any of the possible server outcomes from a connection attempt.
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Using association rules in Forex data analysis

Using association rules in Forex data analysis

How to apply predictive rules of supermarket retail analytics to the real Forex market? How are purchases of cookies, milk and bread related to stock exchange transactions? The article discusses an innovative approach to algorithmic trading based on the use of association rules.
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Price Action Analysis Toolkit Development (Part 60):  Objective Swing-Based Trendlines for Structural Analysis

Price Action Analysis Toolkit Development (Part 60): Objective Swing-Based Trendlines for Structural Analysis

We present a rule-based approach to trendlines that avoids indicator pivots and uses ordered swings derived from raw prices. The article walks through swing detection, size qualification via ATR or fixed thresholds, and validation of ascending and descending structures, then implements these rules in MQL5 with non-repainting drawing and selective output. You get a clear, repeatable way to track structural support and resistance that holds up across market conditions.
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Population optimization algorithms: Nelder–Mead, or simplex search (NM) method

Population optimization algorithms: Nelder–Mead, or simplex search (NM) method

The article presents a complete exploration of the Nelder-Mead method, explaining how the simplex (function parameter space) is modified and rearranged at each iteration to achieve an optimal solution, and describes how the method can be improved.
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DoEasy. Controls (Part 28): Bar styles in the ProgressBar control

DoEasy. Controls (Part 28): Bar styles in the ProgressBar control

In this article, I will develop display styles and description text for the progress bar of the ProgressBar control.
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Category Theory in MQL5 (Part 2)

Category Theory in MQL5 (Part 2)

Category Theory is a diverse and expanding branch of Mathematics which as of yet is relatively uncovered in the MQL5 community. These series of articles look to introduce and examine some of its concepts with the overall goal of establishing an open library that attracts comments and discussion while hopefully furthering the use of this remarkable field in Traders' strategy development.
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Creating a Trading Administrator Panel in MQL5 (Part VIII): Analytics Panel

Creating a Trading Administrator Panel in MQL5 (Part VIII): Analytics Panel

Today, we delve into incorporating useful trading metrics within a specialized window integrated into the Admin Panel EA. This discussion focuses on the implementation of MQL5 to develop an Analytics Panel and highlights the value of the data it provides to trading administrators. The impact is largely educational, as valuable lessons are drawn from the development process, benefiting both upcoming and experienced developers. This feature demonstrates the limitless opportunities this development series offers in equipping trade managers with advanced software tools. Additionally, we'll explore the implementation of the PieChart and ChartCanvas classes as part of the continued expansion of the Trading Administrator panel’s capabilities.
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Portfolio optimization in Forex: Synthesis of VaR and Markowitz theory

Portfolio optimization in Forex: Synthesis of VaR and Markowitz theory

How does portfolio trading work on Forex? How can Markowitz portfolio theory for portfolio proportion optimization and VaR model for portfolio risk optimization be synthesized? We create a code based on portfolio theory, where, on the one hand, we will get low risk, and on the other, acceptable long-term profitability.
Interview with Alexander Topchylo (ATC 2010)
Interview with Alexander Topchylo (ATC 2010)

Interview with Alexander Topchylo (ATC 2010)

Alexander Topchylo (Better) is the winner of the Automated Trading Championship 2007. Alexander is an expert in neural networks - his Expert Advisor based on a neural network was on top of best EAs of year 2007. In this interview Alexander tells us about his life after the Championships, his own business and new algorithms for trading systems.
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Quantization in machine learning (Part 1): Theory, sample code, analysis of implementation in CatBoost

Quantization in machine learning (Part 1): Theory, sample code, analysis of implementation in CatBoost

The article considers the theoretical application of quantization in the construction of tree models and showcases the implemented quantization methods in CatBoost. No complex mathematical equations are used.
Interview with Andrea Zani (ATC 2011)
Interview with Andrea Zani (ATC 2011)

Interview with Andrea Zani (ATC 2011)

On the eleventh week of the Automated Trading Championship, Andrea Zani (sbraer) got featured very close to the top five of the competition. It is on the sixth place with about 47,000 USD now. Andrea's Expert Advisor AZXY has made only one losing deal, which was at the very beginning of the Championship. Since then, its equity curve has been steadily growing.
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Simple solutions for handling indicators conveniently

Simple solutions for handling indicators conveniently

In this article, I will describe how to make a simple panel to change the indicator settings directly from the chart, and what changes need to be made to the indicator to connect the panel. This article is intended for novice MQL5 users.
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Billiards Optimization Algorithm (BOA)

Billiards Optimization Algorithm (BOA)

The BOA method is inspired by the classic game of billiards and simulates the search for optimal solutions as a game with balls trying to fall into pockets representing the best results. In this article, we will consider the basics of BOA, its mathematical model, and its efficiency in solving various optimization problems.
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Neural Networks Made Easy (Part 92): Adaptive Forecasting in Frequency and Time Domains

Neural Networks Made Easy (Part 92): Adaptive Forecasting in Frequency and Time Domains

The authors of the FreDF method experimentally confirmed the advantage of combined forecasting in the frequency and time domains. However, the use of the weight hyperparameter is not optimal for non-stationary time series. In this article, we will get acquainted with the method of adaptive combination of forecasts in frequency and time domains.
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Data Science and ML (Part 29): Essential Tips for Selecting the Best Forex Data for AI Training Purposes

Data Science and ML (Part 29): Essential Tips for Selecting the Best Forex Data for AI Training Purposes

In this article, we dive deep into the crucial aspects of choosing the most relevant and high-quality Forex data to enhance the performance of AI models.
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Price Action Analysis Toolkit Development (Part 57): Developing a Market State Classification Module in MQL5

Price Action Analysis Toolkit Development (Part 57): Developing a Market State Classification Module in MQL5

This article develops a market state classification module for MQL5 that interprets price behavior using completed price data. By examining volatility contraction, expansion, and structural consistency, the tool classifies market conditions as compression, transition, expansion, or trend, providing a clear contextual framework for price action analysis.
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Master MQL5 from Beginner to Pro (Part III): Complex Data Types and Include Files

Master MQL5 from Beginner to Pro (Part III): Complex Data Types and Include Files

This is the third article in a series describing the main aspects of MQL5 programming. This article covers complex data types that were not discussed in the previous article. These include structures, unions, classes, and the 'function' data type. It also explains how to add modularity to your program using the #include preprocessor directive.
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Developing a Replay System (Part 59): A New Future

Developing a Replay System (Part 59): A New Future

Having a proper understanding of different ideas allows us to do more with less effort. In this article, we'll look at why it's necessary to configure a template before the service can interact with the chart. Also, what if we improve the mouse pointer so we can do more things with it?
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Neural networks made easy (Part 34): Fully Parameterized Quantile Function

Neural networks made easy (Part 34): Fully Parameterized Quantile Function

We continue studying distributed Q-learning algorithms. In previous articles, we have considered distributed and quantile Q-learning algorithms. In the first algorithm, we trained the probabilities of given ranges of values. In the second algorithm, we trained ranges with a given probability. In both of them, we used a priori knowledge of one distribution and trained another one. In this article, we will consider an algorithm which allows the model to train for both distributions.
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Developing a multi-currency Expert Advisor (Part 21): Preparing for an important experiment and optimizing the code

Developing a multi-currency Expert Advisor (Part 21): Preparing for an important experiment and optimizing the code

For further progress it would be good to see if we can improve the results by periodically re-running the automatic optimization and generating a new EA. The stumbling block in many debates about the use of parameter optimization is the question of how long the obtained parameters can be used for trading in the future period while maintaining the profitability and drawdown at the specified levels. And is it even possible to do this?
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Population optimization algorithms: Bat algorithm (BA)

Population optimization algorithms: Bat algorithm (BA)

In this article, I will consider the Bat Algorithm (BA), which shows good convergence on smooth functions.
Alexander Anufrenko: "A danger foreseen is half avoided" (ATC 2010)
Alexander Anufrenko: "A danger foreseen is half avoided" (ATC 2010)

Alexander Anufrenko: "A danger foreseen is half avoided" (ATC 2010)

The risky development of Alexander Anufrenko (Anufrenko321) had been featured among the top three of the Championship for three weeks. Having suffered a catastrophic Stop Loss last week, his Expert Advisor lost about $60,000, but now once again he is approaching the leaders. In this interview the author of this interesting EA is describing the operating principles and characteristics of his application.
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Neural networks made easy (Part 80): Graph Transformer Generative Adversarial Model (GTGAN)

Neural networks made easy (Part 80): Graph Transformer Generative Adversarial Model (GTGAN)

In this article, I will get acquainted with the GTGAN algorithm, which was introduced in January 2024 to solve complex problems of generation architectural layouts with graph constraints.